“In Modi, Savarkar Meets Twitter, and Falls in Love”: An Interview With Pankaj Mishra

28 January 2017

Pankaj Mishra is a writer and novelist whose essays on politics and literature have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian and Granta. He is also the author of several books, including An End to Suffering: The Buddha in The World, published in 2004; From the Ruins of the Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia, published in 2012; and A Great Clamour: Encounters With China and its Neighbours, published in 2013. In his latest book, Age of Anger, Mishra discusses the ongoing rightward shift in global politics, and the rise of nationalism in both India and the West.

Surabhi Kanga, an assistant editor with Vantage, interviewed Mishra about his book over the phone and later over email. They discussed the value of studying historical parallels, the relationship between Hindu, German and Italian nationalism, as well as the influence of European thought on the manner in which leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi and VD Savarkar perceived power.

Surabhi Kanga: What do you define as the age of anger and why did you choose to call it that?

Surabhi Kanga is the web editor at The Caravan.

Keywords: nationalism Donald Trump brexit Age of Anger ressentiment
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